Worthless
by Nea-Nea-The-Last-Angel
Summary: DarkNaru! Naruto feels worthless, like a burden to the little friends and family he has. Never standing up for himself, hurting himself he doesn't care. Someone stands up for him, a complete stranger. Rating may change GaaNaru
1. I am

NeaNea: Okay so here's the first chapter! I do plan on continuing my other story, my computer is dead (D:) with the chapters for it and having rewritten the first half 12th chapter 3 times, I'm not to keen on starting it over again. So I borrowed my sissy's comp and started this instead.

And Now ladies and Gents "Worthless"

Chapter I

I am

The sharp biting sting of the stolen kitchen knife was the only real thing he could feel, his eyes had glazed over, and the sensation of a warm liquid running down his leg. Yes, he knew this was wrong, dangerous, but he had stopped caring long ago. Sighing he reached into his nightstand and grabbed a bandage roll, slow and careful he wrapped his bleeding upper leg before standing and making his way to his small closet. Looking over his clothes he grabbed a pair of his loose fitting uniform pants and a long sleeve button down shirt, quickly dressing, he clumsily tied his tie and grabbed his school blazer and messenger bag on the way out the door.

He lived in the shitty-est apartment complex in town, his godfather paid for school so the least he could do was pay for a place and his bills, he didn't want to be a burden to the only family he had left. He quickly walked the three miles to school, careful for his injured leg, making it five minutes before first bell. Sasuke always seemed to know just when he'd show up, cracking his knuckles the raven haired teen stood from his seat,

"Late as always moron."

Now he had two options, he could try and confront the taller, stronger teen, or he could try his luck and dash around him and into the safety of the school.

Luck it was. Crouching slightly he tried to speed past the other but Sasuke was quicker, Sasuke caught him by the arm and quickly threw him to the ground and a swift kick to his left hip. Suddenly a pale hand pulled him up by the shoulder, another catching the Uchiha's knee (which from the looks of it would have caught his chin).

Looking up to see his savior, a teen maybe a few inches taller than himself (but still a few inches shorter then Sasuke) with deep red hair, stood above him, the red head's sea foam eyes glanced at him for a second before shoving the raven haired teen's knee back, causing said teen to stumble back a few steps and glare. The redhead met the look with one of absolute boredom; Sasuke cocked back his fist as the redhead gently pushed the shorter male out of the way. He caught Sasuke's hand and sharply twisted it, the raven haired teen sank to his knees

"Leave him be," the redhead said still looking bored,

again pushing the raven back. Holding his injured hand, Sasuke stood still glaring at the redhead, before turning and walking away.

His eyes met sea foam again,

"Thank you for helping me, I'm Naruto Uzumaki." He said,

Reaching out his hand for a shake,

"Gaara Shukaku."

The redhead then stepped past him and into the school. Naruto smiled a little, no one had ever stepped in before, at least not for him. Rushing to his homeroom, after realizing that late bell had already rung, and quickly taking his seat.

Gaara came in shortly after, the teacher just pointed him to the empty seat next Naruto, the blond carefully stole a few glances at the silent redhead while avoiding the glares from the other side of the room. So far today was a weird day for him, weird but good.

/ Sorry it's a short chappy R&R?/


	2. It's Only

Chapter II

It's only…

Naruto grabbed his gym clothes from his gym locker and rushed into one of the stalls, locking it behind himself. He strips out of his regular school uniform, pulling on his green, long sleeved under shirt before pulling his 'Konoha Private' and green gym shorts. Switching shoes quickly, he opens the stall door, and there leaning on the wall across from him is Gaara. Gaara stands when he steps out of the stall, merely nodding before stepping around him and closing the door.

Looking around Naruto notices all the other stalls were open. Making sure all his scars were covered he peaked into the locker room, it still had several half naked guys in it, stepping back he blushes. He'd been changing in the stalls since middle school, about when people started picking on him, it wasn't his fault he was thin, or that he was more feminine looking, or that he blond damn it!

Looking down, he pulls at the sleeves, his scars; they were his fault, the pain he felt at his own hands, and the relief that followed. It was all he really had. He heard Gaara before he stopped behind him, but Naruto couldn't bring his eyes up from his wrists. He quickly shuffled out of the locker room and out onto the field behind the gym

"Gai has us outside most of the time; we barely go in the gym." He said to the redhead following him,

all though the other didn't respond.

"It looks like were playing soccer again, I wonder which team I'll end up on this time. Shikamaru was the team captain so-"he kind of just rambled on to feel the silence,

Gaara would most likely end up hanging out with more popular people. Gaara merely nodded every now and then, not really paying attention to the talkative blond, there was more to the boy than he let on. The blond carefully avoided looking at certain people, he noticed, one of them being the guy that attacked him earlier and his friends.

He was also kind of pointing things out to him, which cliques were which, certain teachers, but not a single person he labeled 'friend', did the blond not have any? He was certainly likeable if not talkative; he was friendly but seemed to avoid people. Their teacher was running around the field in a green jumpsuit, Gaara could feel his left eye twitch, finally the man stopped in front of them

"that's Gai" Naruto said.

He nodded to show he heard

"Now my youthful students, we will be playing soccer the rest of the week. Team Captains are Sasuke Uchiha and Shikamaru Nara"

The raven haired guy from earlier walked to stand next to the teacher, along with a brown haired male, his hair pulled into a high spikey ponytail and a lazy expression on his face. Shikamaru immediately pointed to Naruto, who went to stand next to him and away from Sasuke, who for a split second looked pissed, Sasuke pointed to some guy behind him, Gaara was picked for Shikamaru's team.

Eventually everyone was picked for teams, Gaara hated running. Naruto was pretty quick, only Sasuke and a teen in a green jumpsuit (almost identical to the teacher's), Naruto dips in front of Sasuke, stealing the ball and kicking it to the goal across the field. Gaara watched carefully as two main things happened, a teen with long brown hair and light purple eyes distracted the teacher, and Sasuke tackling Naruto as soon as the teacher was no longer paying attention to the game.

Naruto doesn't put up a fight, going with the fall he found, caused less harm to his person, he regretted it almost immediately. Sasuke landed on his injured leg, hissing Naruto shoves the taller heavier boy off himself, looking down he saw it was too late and blood was already soaking through his shorts. Cursing Naruto quickly stood and limped to back the locker room, Sasuke saw the blood, and Gaara saw the blood.

Gaara was suddenly chasing Naruto inside were as the raven haired male was to stunned to move, he knew that hadn't landed on anything in the blonde's pocket. In fact all he felt was the material of their shorts and the soft tan skin. Gaara just barely made it in the locker room as Naruto was slamming a stall door and locking it behind him.

Sitting down Naruto pulled up the shorts to look at the soaked through bandages, they were completely unsalvageable, Naruto sighed. He had spare bandages in his main locker, he couldn't get to them. Grabbing toilet paper and pressing it to the re-opened wound, stopping the blood flow a little at least, maybe if he could get it to stop bleeding he could redress and go to his locker before his next class.

Gaara walked to his gym locker and rummaged through his bag, finally grabbing what he was looking for he walked to the only closed stall and listened to the panicking breathes. Why was he helping him? Because they were the same, when he first saw the other boy this morning, his ocean blue eyes were defeated, empty, and something about that hit home, he had to protect him. Gaara pushes the unopened roll of bandages under the stall door and steps back, leaning against the wall, he looks down at his own scars.

Naruto was surprised at the roll of bandages suddenly shoved under the door; all his panicked half plans stopped forming as he stared to the roll. Slowly he picks it up as if it might run off if he moved to fast, he still stared at it, carefully he unrolls it and starts rewrapping his thigh. Making sure the bandage is tight and secure and that he won't bleed through it again, picking up the unused bandages and throwing out the dirty ones. Taking a deep breath, Naruto unlocks the door and slowly opens it. A small smile to his once again savior

"Thank you."


	3. Understanding

Chapter III

Understanding

"Thank you"

Gaara looked at Naruto and nodded, before turning and walking away. The blonde watched the silent teen leave, going to his locker he put the bandages in his pants pocket, class was going to be over soon anyway. He decided to skip the rest, quickly dressing before anyone came in he too left the locker room. Naruto quickly made his way down the hall and out a side door, and into the sun once more, he lightly jogged towards his apartment. His leg hurt a lot, but he didn't really care.

Naruto's front door was wide open when he got there, the sounds of rustling could be heard from right inside, it seemed it was just his luck that someone would break into his apartment on the one day he decided to come home early. Realizing he had nothing he could defend himself with, or that he wanted to, he steps into the apartment.

Jiraiya was lounging on the beaten old couch; his sandaled feet up on the worn coffee table, sake and a bunch of questionable magazines littered the surface. Apparently his godfather had himself at home and passed out with the door open, sighing Naruto closed the door and went to his small room. Naruto changed into simple blue jeans and a long sleeve dark blue top before heading back out of the room and into the kitchen.

Pulling out the chicken and slicing it into thin strips before putting it in the frying pan and poured water and rice in the rice cooker. He carefully chopped up vegetables and threw them in the pan with the chicken, stirring it every so often until it was done. Naruto carefully filled each plate with rice before scoping the chicken and vegetables on top and grabbing two pairs of chopsticks from the drawer, his godfather didn't visit him often as he was always traveling.

He was a very busy man, always writing books, searching for inspiration, peeping into women baths, Naruto smiled. It had been months since he last saw the older man, and when he had it had only been for a few minutes. Naruto set the plates on counter and tidied up the coffee table (putting the porn mags under it, he wouldn't be able to eat with them there), he also shoved Jiraiya's feet off the table before gently shaking the man awake and getting the food.

Jiraiya takes the plate handed to him

"Hey brat, shouldn't you be in school?" he says taking a bite,

"Doesn't matter, some old pervert broke into my apartment so I burned his magazines." Naruto says around a bite of chicken,

Jiraiya quickly looks around the living room, before spotting them under the table

"You sneaky little fox," the older man laughs out patting the blonde harshly on the back,

"Anyway, I just wanted to check in on you while I'm in town. Tsunade says she's setting up an appointment for you next Friday afternoon." Jiraiya sets down his plate of half eaten food,

Before standing and heading towards the door

"I have research to do while I'm here, see ya around kid."

And with that he was gone.

Naruto rushed in the door of the small bagel shop and into the back, his locker slightly open and a note inside covering a bowl of ramen

'Heard _you've had a hard day, enjoy- Sai_ _''._

Naruto smiles before putting on his apron and clocking in. Naruto ended up watching the clock, only a few customers an hour left for a really boring shift, so boring that he was chucking burnt bagel ends at Ino(who was also working), who was trying to catch them in her mouth. Laughing she sweeps up the fallen, failed bagel pieces when he misses.

Naruto warms up his bowl of ramen, happily humming as he grabs his food and sits in the lobby, leaving Ino to clean the store,

"Hey Naruto, how come you always go on break when any of the major cleaning needs to be done?" she mock whines as she wipes tables off,

"That's not true! Besides noodles make the world go round!" Naruto says around a mouthful of ramen.

Ino looks away from him, disgusted about how he eats, noodles whipping around and broth spraying everywhere,

"Didn't you and Sasuke used to be best friends? Do you think you can hook us up?" She asks out of nowhere,

Looking out the store window, Naruto nearly chokes on his ramen

"I uh, I don't really talk to him anymore. We're not friends." Naruto looks at his food.

 _Young Sasuke and young Naruto sitting in Naruto's old house playing video games on the big T.V., A fiery haired woman carrying snacks and drinks; Standing in the doorway. A huge smile on her lips as she watches the boys. Naruto suddenly looks over at her_

" _Hi mom! Is it okay if Sasuke spends the night?"_

 _Her smile never faded, "sure honey," she said as she finally handed the snacks and drinks to the kids._

Suddenly Naruto's ramen didn't taste so good. Ino remind silent the rest of their shift, she understood losing a friend. Naruto plopped onto his couch, today was too long, groaning he realized he hadn't even started his homework yet and it was already eleven. 


End file.
